Extensive prior art exists in the field of interchangeable socket wrenches to either tighten or loosen mechanical fasteners. The majority of the manually operated drivers use a ratchet mechanism to eliminate wrench removal and repositioning after each swing of the tool. The ratchet is limited to some discrete incrementing angle due to the nature of the mechanism, and this small angle multiplied by the length of the handle creates a minimum use arc. In tight spaces, a ratchet becomes useless because the user cannot swing the handle far enough to get to the next ratchet tooth without bumping into surrounding obstacles. In addition, the ratchet pawl engaging spring force adds drag to the mechanism which is greater than the free spinning torque of many loosened fasteners. Thus the ratchet becomes useless while the fastener turning torque remains uncomfortably stiff to turn by hand.
In addition to the prior art existing with respect to the above discussed wrenches, there is a field of art which employs sprags in order to transfer force between an inner and outer race. A sprag is a device located between races that transfers power from one race to another due to the wedging action. Typically, in a clutch arrangement using a sprag, rotation of the race in the opposite direction causes the sprags to disengage so that the clutch no longer transfers force between the races.